Institute for Families in Society

(PhD, Health Services Research/ Health Policy, Union Institute University; Vocational Counseling, MEd, and Counseling Psychology, MA, Teachers College, Columbia University)

Ana López – De Fede, Ph.D., is a Research Professor and Associate Director of the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina. She leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers working on research, evaluation, and health policy initiatives with a specialization in Medicaid and health equity. Dr. López – De Fede has over thirty years of experience working with big data, mixed methods, health geography, public health insurance, and conducting community participatory action research. She is a health policy and health services researcher, comfortable triangulating multiple data sources to help frame action across numerous entities and stakeholders. The work she leads seeks to provide the evidence needed to increase access to care, decrease health care costs, and improve health outcomes. She has served on advisory committees or spearheaded research at the national level with the CDC, AHRQ, NIH, and RWJ. In the Southern region, her work has been supported by The Duke Endowment and the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation. A frequent collaborator with AcademyHealth on state Medicaid policies and research, she directs the fourth oldest University-Academic Partnership with a state Medicaid program. Dr. López – De Fede is the recipient of the 2020 American Public Health Association Avedis Donabedian Award. This award is presented annually to reflect the work of Avedis Donabedian, MD, MPH. It recognizes outstanding contributions to quality assurance and the improvement of health care. In her career, she has traveled extensively to consult in health services research in the Caribbean basin, Central and South America, and South Africa.